Just a short update this time. My YouTube channel now has 290 subscribers (stalkers). This puts peer pressure on me as I feel the need to continue to provide good content. How many more subscribers do I need until I am considered a YouTuber?

I entered my YouTube in the first Virtual Philatelic Websites and Social Media Exhibition. I will not go into the details of the competition, but you should check it out. Of special mention are two young philatelists, meaning under 40, yes babies in the philatelic world, but these are Lisa from StampCat and Richard from Richard Philatelist.
Ok, I hear you asking why am I telling you this? Well way back in November there was an exhibition in which I entered this blog. There was a popular voting option, in which you my readers, can vote for me. With your help, I came runner up in the popular vote. So now I am asking again.

Here is the link to the page: https://pwoexpo2022.virtuafil.org/public-expo-exhibits-list-gallery.aspx.

Now that you are there, look for my YouTube channel, near the bottom of the sites. It is listed alphabetically.

Today I have another surprise for you. Another very good friend has volunteered to write something for us. So thank you Jean Wang for joining us.

For collectors of medical philately, the pandemic has provided lots of fodder, with so far over 100 official stamp issues, slogan machine cancels and meter marks, pictorial postmarks and postal stationery, among others. The stamp issues have covered a wide variety of pandemic-related themes, including thanking essential workers, promoting public health measures, spreading messages of solidarity and support, and more recently promoting vaccination. Among these, two issues from Austria stand out: a semi-postal souvenir sheet issued in October 2020 and a stamp issued in September 2021.

Both of these COVID-19 issues are made of unusual material, something for which Austria Post has developed a reputation. They have previously issued stamps made of porcelain, leather, glass, fabric, plastic, wood, and an aluminum plastic composite (ski tip), as well as stamps with crystals, seeds, pearls, or rock dust affixed.

Austria toilet paper souvenir sheet

Their first COVID-19 stamp issue, a souvenir sheet titled “Distance that brings us together”, promotes social distancing and depicts a baby elephant (printed in silver foil) as a way to help people judge a distance of 1 meter. To provide perspective, the sheet also illustrates a small insect (1 mm), a fly (1 cm), and a mouse (1 dm - a decimeter is 10cm) (note – objects are not to scale!). Why a baby elephant, you ask? During the first wave of the pandemic, Austria encouraged (and later legally required) people to stay ‘a baby elephant apart’. This symbol of social responsibility was quite popular – in fact, ‘baby elephant’ (or ‘Babyelefant’ as it is commonly written in German) was named Austria’s word of the year for 2020.

What makes the souvenir sheet truly unique, however – and a mandatory item for collectors of unusual stamps – is the material on which it is printed. Austria Post has a somewhat irreverent sense of humor (see, for example, their Brexit stamp on the left, which poked fun at the delayed withdrawal of the UK from the European Union). As a nod to the panic buying of toilet paper that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic by people worried about the impact of lockdowns on their personal hygiene, this souvenir sheet is printed on actual 3-ply toilet paper. The postal agency teamed up with a toilet paper manufacturer to plan and test the production process over many months. To overcome the obvious problems of the material’s fragility and its assured destruction upon getting wet, a self-adhesive film was laminated onto the back; just peel and stick, no licking necessary. 

People who say that stamp collectors are all old people, or middle aged people, are unaware of the newcomers who have YouTube channels. Graham Beck of Exploring Stamps has pointed out one to us and the Digital Philatelist (Digi) brought another to our attention. I want to spotlight them here.

A young stamp collector who understands what philately is all about, and just started making their YouTube channel "I'll Be Stamped!" He doesn't give his name, but check it out.



Another one I would like you to check out, is Lisa at "StampCat Stamps". She says "Exploring my postage stamp collection one stamp at a time." Check out this video, filled with history that some I did not know and others I forgot about.



If you know of others, let me know.

I was mentioned in an episode of #philately, so how can I not boast about it?                            

Now here is a really cool story and thank you to my friend Graham Beck for telling me about this.

At the Canadian Expo in 1967, there was the Guyana Pavilion which they shared with Barbados, probably to save costs. Both countries had recently become independent and this was a huge opportunity to advertise their independence.

They decided to send a number of Macaws, beautiful and colorful parrots that were indigenous to the region and known for their ability to learn and repeat words. One of the parrots was named Millie Amacore and she was going to be the star because, like my daughter, she could speak two languages.

So what happened?

Beautiful Millie apparently arrived at the show several weeks earlier, while construction was still in progress and as parrots do she listened to all the construction workers. Millie picked up the bad language from the construction workers as they were working on the pavilion or maybe they were teaching her?

When the Expo opened in April of 1967, visitors to the Guyana pavilion were greeted with Swearing Millie, in both French and English. So the little bird was expelled, banished, evicted from the world affair. In my opinion she was lucky that didn’t become a tasty dish. Actually I would have thought it was funny but in 1967 I was a young laddie.

But her not being turned into a tasty dish, she was featured on a set of  Christmas stamps from Guyana later that year. As Graham pointed out, Cussing Millie has nothing to do with Christmas, and her sole fame was her astonishing ability to swear in both English and French. But the incident was still fresh in the minds of everyone, so why not promote the young lady? Who knows, it may have brought tourism to the new country.

Note to self, be careful when I swear around my daughter, whether it be English, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic or whatever. Maybe I should try not to swear until she is 18? Long wait!

Note: I received permission from Graham to do this. You can see the original here